Bender's new gig

Former Pacer is helping lower income families in New Orleans area

Jul. 9, 2008

BIG MAN'S NEW ROLE: Former Indiana Pacer Jonathan Bender stands at one of the apartments that his construction company has renovated in New Orleans after they were severely damaged during Hurricane Katrina.

Written by

Rick Cleveland
The (Jackson, Miss.) Clarion-Ledger

NEW ORLEANS -- Jonathan Bender remembers the turn of the century, when he was a millionaire teenager playing for the Indiana Pacers in the NBA and all the young guns wanted to become the next Michael Jordan.

"I was different; I wanted to be the guy who owned the team," Bender said. "I wanted to be the guy who signed the checks and was at the top of the chain.

"I thought to myself, 'If there's somebody who can afford to pay us all these millions, then there's a whole 'nother world out there I don't know anything about. There's a whole 'nother level.' I wanted to be on that level." ...